A 3D cartoon of a mouse jumping around on a landscape of white hexagonal pillars. The mouse's trajectory through time is noted with a wiggly blue line. The mouse wears electronics on the back of its head and a small thin wire comes up out of them.
November 13, 2024
Open technology platform enables new versatility for neuroscience research with more naturalistic behavior
A cartoon shows a head in profile split between a gray region at the front and a green region at the back. In the back is a bell and progressively larger dotted white circles propagate outward from the bell toward the front of the head.
October 7, 2024
The way sensory prediction changes under anesthesia tells us how conscious cognition works
A view of a surgery in progress. Surgeons wearing blue gowns hold a scalpel and scissors just above an opening in the dressing of a patient who is lying on a table. Blurred in the foreground is a tray of other surgical instruments.
September 23, 2024
Research quantifying “nociception” could help improve management of surgical pain
A diagram shows hundreds of dots interconnected by gray lines. Many of the dots show combinations of different colors, denoting which serotonin receptors they express.
September 6, 2024
Better living through brain chemistry
Two panels show the emergence of seizures. Calm, narrow dark blue squiggles representing a tight range of low voltages at various currents explode into vibrant, wide squiggles with warmer colors as current and voltage increases at a broadening range of frequencies.
August 21, 2024
Study assesses seizure risk from stimulating thalamus

Autism symptoms sometimes improve amid fever, so a research team will study how to make that a therapy

May 8, 2024
New Research
With support from The Marcus Foundation, an MIT neuroscientist and a Harvard Medical School immunologist will study the “fever effect” in an effort to devise therapies that mimic its beneficial effects.

In the brain, bursts of beta rhythms implement cognitive control

April 23, 2024
Research Findings
Bursts of brain rhythms with “beta” frequencies control where and when neurons in the cortex process sensory information and plan responses. Studying these bursts would improve understanding of cognition and clinical disorders, researchers write.

Paper: To understand cognition—and its dysfunction—neuroscientists must learn its rhythms

April 17, 2024
Research Findings
Thought emerges and is controlled in the brain via the rhythmically and spatially coordinated activity of millions of neurons, scientists argue in a new article. Understanding cognition and its disorders requires studying it at that level.

Tsai presents non-invasive stimulation study at Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress

March 27, 2024
Picower Events
Alana Down Syndrome Center team recruiting volunteers to test whether 40Hz light and sound stimulation produces cognitive benefits.

Plasticity and place: Study shows a key neural mechanism of remembering locations

March 25, 2024
Research Findings
Scientists have now observed how the brain’s place cells stave off inhibitory input in the process of establishing their tuning to specific locations. The study shows that signaling by endocannabinoids is required.

Movement disorder ALS and cognitive disorder FTLD show strong molecular overlaps, new study shows

March 22, 2024
Research Findings
Single-cell gene expression patterns in the brain’s motor and frontal cortex, and evidence from follow-up experiments, reveal many shared cellular and molecular similarities that could be targeted for potential treatment

Livestreaming the Brain

March 15, 2024
Research Feature
To learn how the brain works, Picower Institute labs are advancing technologies and methods to watch it live as it happens

A noninvasive treatment for “chemo brain”

March 6, 2024
Research Findings
Stimulating gamma brain waves may protect cancer patients from memory impairment and other cognitive effects of chemotherapy, a new mouse study suggests.

How sensory gamma rhythm stimulation clears amyloid in Alzheimer’s mice

February 28, 2024
Research Findings
Stimulating a key brain rhythm with light and sound increases peptide release from interneurons, driving clearance of Alzheimer’s protein via the brain’s glymphatic system, new study suggests.

Study reveals a universal pattern of brain wave frequencies

January 18, 2024
Research Findings
Across mammalian species, brain waves are slower in deep cortical layers, while superficial layers generate faster rhythms.

Starting off the year with new skills, new connections

January 9, 2024
Picower People
At MIT’s Quantitative Methods Workshop, more than 80 students and faculty from a dozen partner institutions became immersed at the intersection of computation and life sciences and forged new ties to MIT and each other.

New Picower Investigator advances optical methods to study learning and memory

January 2, 2024
Picower People
Assistant Professor Linlin Fan launches a lab to shine a finely focused, innovative spotlight on the neural basis of encoding knowledge.